Texas Tech baseball: Gavin Kash’s big fly lifts Red Raiders past Florida

With the Texas Tech baseball team and the home-standing Florida Gators locked in a 3-3 impasse in the bottom of the 8th on Saturday night, the Red Raiders found their superstar slugger, Gavin Kash, at the plate with a runner on and two outs.  With the count at 3-2, the partisan Gainesville crowd rose to its feet and tried to coax strike three into existence.  Then, with one swing, Kash wrote his name in the annals of Red Raider baseball history.

As the lefty made contact with the ball, the Gator faithful let out a collective and noticeable “Oh…” in despair as Kash launched the ball over the fence in left-center to give the No. 3 seeded Red Raiders a 5-3 lead, one that would hold up in a 5-4 victory that sends Tim Tadlock’s team to the championship round of the regional needing to win only one of the next two games (if necessary) to advance to next weekend’s Super Regional round.

It was the second homer of the night and the 26th on the season for Kash, who had been mired in a slump so prolonged that he was dropped to 7th in the lineup for the pivotal game against the nation’s No. 2 overall seed in the NCAA Tournament after going hitless in his previous 19 plate appearances.

Since bashing a long ball against Sam Houston on May 5th, the sophomore transfer from Texas had managed to provide his team with only two big flys in 14 games.  What’s more, he was in the midst of a four-game hitless streak entering Saturday.

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That all changed with two mighty hacks in the biggest game of the year to date.  But it was the Gators (who batted first despite playing in their home park) that opened the scoring with a sacrifice fly in the 4th.

The Red Raiders would answer in the bottom of the inning in the form of a two-run bomb from second baseman Austin Green, his 12th round-tripper of 2023.  One inning later, Kash would lead off the bottom of the 5th with a solo shot to right-center.

However, Florida has a prolific slugger of their own and in the 6th, Jac Caglianone made his presence felt when he tied the game by sending an 0-2 pitch out to left field.  It was his 29th blast of the season and it brought life back into what had become a quiet and rather tense ballpark.

However, it would be Kash who had the final say in this game.  But not before one last Florida rally.

In the top of the 9th, a triple and a fielder’s choice would plate a run for the Gators.  What’s more, after an infield single, Caglianone would have one last chance to upstage Kash.  However, Red Raider reliever Brandon Beckel would induce a pop-fly to third to seal the win.

It was the second-straight day that the junior had to come up big for his team.  Against UCONN on Friday, he tossed two scoreless innings to help Tech protect a 3-2 lead to set up Saturday’s meeting with Florida.

Now, one must wonder if Beckel, who is without question Tech’s best arm out of the pen, will be available on Sunday given that he’s thrown 38 pitches combined in the last two days.  But on the other hand, he had to throw only 8 on Saturday, and, June is no time to keep your powder dry if you are Tadlock.

The pitching staff has come up big through the first two games in Gainesville holding two potent offenses to just six total runs.  Sophomore Kyle Robinson was excellent to start the game tossing five innings and giving up only two earned runs on four hits.  It was his second quality start in a row after also tossing five innings against Oklahoma State last week in the Big 12 Tournament allowing no runs that evening in Arlington, Texas.

Senior Ethan Coombs picked up the win in relief, just his fourth win on the year.  Pitching a scoreless 8th inning, he set the stage for Kash’s heroics in the bottom of that frame.

If Kash is about to get hot, the Red Raiders are going to be a tough out in June.  Already with a lineup that opposing pitchers feared, the biggest bat in the Red Raider lineup seems to have awakened at just the right time.